Lower shore legislators have pitched changes to an obscure part of the tax code – known as “subtraction modification” – as a means to alleviate the increasingly likely possibility of a minimum wage increase in Maryland.
State Sen. Jim Mathias and Delegate Norm Conway have cross-filed Senate Bill 0059 and House Bill 0397, respectively, both of which would create an income subtraction for the “add-back” tax benefit given to those employers with payroll taxes for tipped employees above the minimum wage.
“The goal is for the employers to enjoy the same tax treatment in Maryland as they do with the federal government,” Mathias said.
Similarly, Del. Mike McDermott is pushing House Bill 0075, which would create a similar subtraction for income from certain retirement investments.
“Basically, it would exempt that first $50,000 of retirement income from someone’s tax schedule,” McDermott said. “I think it would make us more competitive with some other sates around us that don’t have income tax or already exempt retirement income, so they’re more attractive to people in their later years.”
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I am certainly no Conway nor Mathias fan and would never vote for either however, this is one of their more informed actions.
ReplyDeleteDel. McDermott's HB0075 to exempt portions of retirement income is something MD has needed for a long, long time.
But as for MD's legislature, which is all but controlled by the counties around Baltimore & DC and who think dimly of the "Western hillbillys and webbed-foot Eastern Shore rurals" that they have to tolerate, will have nothing to do with some "marsh dweller's" Bill.., so this, IMHO, is nothing more then wishful thinking.